Not the medieval Arabic character with his 40 thieves but a Chinese online giant that you likely have never heard of.

Alibaba is a gigantic cross between eBay and Amazon with sales more than both those companies combined.

It delivers 60% of Chinese parcels; Yahoo holds a 24% stake (likely worth more than Yahoo’s own assets); and its portal, Taobao (similar to eBay), is one of the top 20 most visited websites globally.

It’s is bigger than Facebook and keep an eye out for its partial floatation within the next 12 months.

So keep a keen eye on that name because one day it could well enter the US and Australian markets.